Chirac refuses to join TV debate 'in the face of hatred'

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Leading article: President Chirac must now defeat Le Pen's racism, not pander to it

President Jacques Chirac refused point-blank yesterday to meet Jean-Marie Le Pen in the traditional television debate during the second round of the presidential campaign.

"In the face of intolerance and hatred, there is no negotiation possible, no compromise possible, no debate possible," he told a rally of his supporters in Rennes, Brittany.

The decision will infuriate Mr Le Pen, who had counted on the debate to help make him seem respectable to a wider range of voters, up to 80 per cent of whom plan to vote against him on 5 May, according to the polls. Opinions were divided on whether Mr Chirac had made the right choice.

Some commentators said they thought he should have been prepared to face down Mr Le Pen in public.

The far-right leader will use Mr Chirac's decision to support his argument that there is a conspiracy against him by the French political and media establishment.

There had been rumours that Mr Chirac would agree only to an American-style presidential debate, in which the two candidates make statements and answer questions from journalists. French presidential debates have traditionally involved a direct confrontation between the two candidates contesting the second round.

Mr Le Pen said he was not prepared to take part in any "devious" American-style debate. "Mr Chirac may be used to taking his ideas and orders from the Americans but not me," he said. "I want a French-style debate."

America has recently risen high in the Le Pen demonology of threats to the French way of life, which also includes immigrants, homosexuals, Europe, Communists, Jews, freemasons and the "cosmopolitan oligarchy" of the French establishment. The demonology is likely to expand to the church hierarchy after the condemnation of Mr Le Pen yesterday by the Bishop of Saint-Denis.

The comments by Monsigneur Olivier de Berranger, calling Mr Le Pen "anti-Christian" among other things, follows the use by the far-right leader on Sunday of a phrase often associated with the Pope. After his unexpectedly powerful performance in the first round of the presidential election – knocking out the Socialist Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin – Mr Le Pen urged the French to "have no fear, enter into hope".

The Bishop of Saint-Denis, a poor suburban area north of Paris where Mr Le Pen topped the poll on Sunday, said the use of the words was a "surreptitious" attempt by Mr Le Pen to present himself as a man of God. Mgr De Berranger said he was, in fact, "a vulgar ... anti-democratic man" whom no "clear-sighted Catholic" should support.

Demonstrations against Mr Le Pen continued in scores of cities and towns yesterday, many of them spontaneously organised by lycée and university students.

More than 100,000 people are estimated to have demonstrated in France on Monday and something like the same number again yesterday.

A march in Paris on Monday degenerated into scuffles and charges by the riot police in the Place de la Bastille in the early hours of yesterday.

Placards reading "I am ashamed" were hoisted in cities from Lille in the north to Marseilles in the south.

Activists opposing Mr Le Pen appealed for calm, warning that violent demonstrations would help his cause.

Mr Le Pen intends to speak in a debate in the European Parliament today and give a press conference.